Pages

The recent past

The one where i don my true-mallu-movie-buff cap

There was an era in malayalam cinema when everything lal-ettan touched turned gold! It began around the time I was five and grew with the lot of us until we were eighteen or so. I am sure many would agree with me if i say that the 90s were the golden era for awesome malayalam movies. I haven’t seen the likes happen recently, even with the advent of crush-worthy talented youngster like prithvi looming to churn hits.

I am not here to analyse what went wrong with the mallu movie industry; although in all clear perception, it is falling prey to the kollywood slide of item numbers and unwarranted heroics in a pesudo-modern setting, which to an average malayalam movie lover is blasphemy. Isn’t that why mallus have turned to tamil movies when they want a dose of dappankoothu, mindless heroics with punch dialogues which they prefer not to tarnish the sublime settings of our own? I have digressed….

It is no secret that it is difficult to comprehend the motif and depth of a ‘good’ mallu movie for a non-mallu. I talk from experience, since I have a mighty tough time, even with subtitles to make N “understand” the mind-blowing mallu comedy. And just because it serves the sect of esteemed audience, mallu movies are shunned by the outer-world as ‘not-worth-the-penny’ or time. So let it be, I say. Why thrive to change the ethos of a people, just because others are doing it? Why churn crass, bawdy comedy interspersed with plot-less shots in the gulf to look modern? why not stick to entertaining mallu-landers with stories of our own?

So all the aping and trying to make commercial farcical cinema of recent times, had me stuck to the old-times ones. It is true that like a saving grace of the dying language in our household, I hold on to larger-than-life lalettan roles and mammoty’s conscious ones to hold malayalam closer than ever before. For i am not sure what motivation I have to teach my unborn child malayalam, other than the fact that I am a fan and is dearer to me than the language i speak at home. So it is bound to die with me and my strew of mallu movies and songs! ( How dramatically tongue-in-cheek!! 😀 ) Well! I digressed again!!…..

So finally coming back to where I wanted to put my money with this post – I watched pranchiyettan and the saint, mammooty’s new movie. I had a shot of de javu, loving the comedy and light feel of the movie I haven’t felt since killukam. Mammoty is truly peaking at 60 with such a gamut of roles he has done lately and this one is another feather to his hat for comedy which all these years had been lal-ettan’s niche! The loveable pranchiyettan character, so wonderfully depicted in all his shortcomings and wonders, quipping in trisshur malyalam simply stole the show!

Oh! so the mallu movie buff in me is looking up expectantly, for more showers of good movies like pranchi. Oh! jolly good I say. Sometimes movies, only the ones you grow up to tell a tale or understand the profoundness make the best ones! I bet pranchi will be watched, re-watched and loved for years to come! So there i go again… basking, smiling, laughing with mirth, being what a mallu-movie-buff truly means!